Tim Burkett: Zen in the Age of Anxiety

Tuesday, September 11, 7:30pm
Pegasus Books Downtown

Tim Burkett discusses Zen in the Age of Anxiety: Wisdom for Navigating Our Modern Lives.

ABOUT ZEN IN THE AGE OF ANXIETY

Zen wisdom for identifying the causes of mental and emotional anxiety epidemic in today’s world and for finding the path to a peaceful heart in the midst of them–a path that leads directly though the center of the anxiety we’re trying to escape.

Wrestling with fear doesn’t have to be a negative experience. This book offers an approach to life that unlocks a new way of thinking and being in the world, one that leads directly through the center of the anxieties we seek to avoid. Written in the style of an owner’s manual, a guide to being human, Burkett focuses on areas of pain and anxiety as they tend to manifest for modern people: feelings of unworthiness, and issues surrounding sex, money, failure, and even death. Providing wisdom from Zen (channeled through his many experiences as a psychotherapist) and using language and metaphors from popular culture, he takes anxiety and teaches us to turn those fears into the building blocks of a fulfilling life.

TIM BURKETT

Tim Burkett began practicing Zen Buddhism in San Francisco in 1964 with renowned teacher Shunryu Suzuki (author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind). Tim’s first book, Nothing Holy About It, discusses how Zen’s core teachings unfold within the ordinary comedies and tragedies of everyday life. In his books, as in his life, Tim reveals how to live in the world with a deep joy that comes from embracing the work and play of this very moment. Tim is the former CEO of the largest non-profit organization in Minnesota for individuals with mental illness. He is a psychologist, a Zen Buddhist priest, and the Guiding Teacher of Minnesota Zen Meditation Center.

PRAISE

“This is a book imbued with love and wisdom, full of passages of fluid prose, woven in with carefully chosen Zen stories, poetry, and relevant research findings. It includes clear explanations of the power of diligent meditation practice to transform our various human difficulties into clear seeing, equanimity, and ease, followed by practical exercises about how to go about this work. This is a book about the substance and beauty of Zen practice, a book I will happily read and recommend to my own students.”—Jan Chozen Bays, author of Mindful Eating and How to Train a Wild Elephant

“I gained so much from reading Tim’s book, especially about how to hold and handle my own anxieties. Here is an encouraging handbook on how Buddhist values and practices can increase our sense of connectedness and foster inner—and outer—peace. I especially liked Tim’s Nine Keys that can open any of us to healing powers in life events and in ourselves too.”—David Richo, author of The Five Things We Cannot Change and How to Be an Adult in Relationships

“With an artless simplicity born of deeply integrated and compassionate wisdom, Tim Burkett speaks to the beginner’s mind in each one of us.”—Cynthia Bourgeault, author of The Heart of Centering Prayer

“Now the guiding teacher at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, Burkett uses his teacher’s advice to frame a thoughtful life manual for modern seekers and meditators—especially those who, like Burkett, lean away from the rigidity of formal religion. For Burkett, the Buddhist precepts are gifts, not rules, that frame a wholesome life. Zen in the Age of Anxiety can help nontraditionalists find their way with those gifts in hand.”—Tricycle: The Buddhist Review 

“Through companionable wisdom and focused practice, Zen in the Age of Anxiety is a guidebook for applying Zen principles to our troubled and harried lives. The book explores the paradox of the centered peace of Zen beliefs in the chaos of modernity. As both a psychologist and a Zen Buddhist priest, Tim Burkett’s vocations pair a broad knowledge of human behavior with the compassion, humor, and openness of Zen.”—Foreword Reviews